333 - Chasing the Butterfly of Blue Run with Mike Montgomery and Tim Sparapani

Bourbon Pursuit

Hobbies, Food, Arts, Leisure

4.9 • 866 Ratings

🗓️ 25 November 2021

⏱️ 65 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Now I have to admit, I remember the first time I heard of Blue Run Spirits and I had my reservations. Who were these guys with some 13 year old sourced product, a Nike shoe designer creating the packaging, the likes of Jim Rutledge putting his name to it, and they are charging over $150 a bottle!? A lot of those reservations began to disappear after I tasted their bourbon. It was really good. And then, the awards started piling up. Blue Run Spirits has been on a sprint more-so than run after launching in 2020. I'm joined by Mike Montgomery and Tim Sparapani, both co-founders of Blue Run, to talk about this journey and how they hit a turning point when people couldn't stop talking about their products. We talk about working with Jim Rutledge, moving from high aged to younger whiskeys, and how they are meeting a new demand in the market. Show Partners: Catoctin Creek has been honoring that tradition of small craft rye whisky since 2009. Learn more at CatoctinCreekDistilling.com. Smooth Ambler builds on the traditional roots of American whiskey in West Virginia. Visit SmoothAmbler.com to learn more. Wilderness Trail is Sweet Mash Kentucky Straight Bourbon and Rye Whiskey distilled, aged, and bottled in Danville, Kentucky. Learn more at WildernessTrailDistillery.com. You can now buy Barrell Craft Spirits products online and have them shipped right to your door. Visit BarrellBourbon.com and click Buy Now. Spirits of French Lick is delivering the finest hand crafted Bottled in Bond bourbons. Check out SpiritsofFrenchLick.com. Total Wine and More is wonderland for wine, spirits, and beer lovers! Explore more in store or online at TotalWine.com. Heaven Hill Distillery has been lifting America’s spirit since 1935. Check out educational resources and sign up for their newsletter at HeavenHillDistillery.com. Show Notes: This week’s Above the Char with Fred Minnick (@fredminnick) talks about the secondary market. How did your whiskey journey begin? Where did your two worlds collide? Why bourbon? Tell us how you went about sourcing your product. How many barrels were your buying in the beginning? Tell us about your packaging. How did you land on the butterfly? How was it working with Jim Rutledge? What was the turning point? Are you concerned about selling younger aged products? Talk about your pricing strategy. What are you working on at Bardstown Bourbon Company? @bluerunspirits Support this podcast on Patreon

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	That's exactly the question you should be asking yourself is what the hell is a butterfly doing on a bottle of bourbon.
0:18.3	This is Bourbon Pursuit, the official podcast of Bourbon, bringing to you the best in
0:21.8	bourbon news, reviews, and interviews with people making the bourbon whiskey industry happen,
0:27.1	and I'm one of your hosts, Kenny Coleman. Now, I have to admit, I remember my first time
0:32.5	hearing of Blue Run Spirits, and I had my reservations. Who were these guys? They had some 13-year-old source product,
0:39.4	a Nike shoe designer to make the packaging, and somehow they got the likes of Jim Rutledge
0:44.0	to put his name on it. Plus, they were charging over $150 a bottle. Well, a lot of those
0:49.9	reservations began to disappear after I tasted their bourbon. It was really good. And then the
0:56.3	award started piling up. Blue Run Spirits has been on more of a sprint than a run after launching back in 2020.
1:03.8	And today I'm joined by Mike Montgomery and Tim Speripani, both co-founders of Blue Run. We talk about
1:09.9	this journey and how they hit a turning
1:11.7	point when people couldn't stop talking about their products. We talk about working with Jim
1:16.7	Routledge, moving from high age to younger whiskeys, and how they're starting to meet a new
1:21.3	demand in the market. With that, enjoy today's episode, and now here's Fred Minnick with
1:27.3	above the jar. I'm Fred Minnick with Above the Char.
1:29.8	I'm Fred Minnick, and this is Above the Char.
1:33.5	This week's idea comes on Twitter from Johnny Abdel-S-A-E-D.
1:39.2	At J-A-B-D-E-L-S-A-Y-E-D, who wrote me on November night.
1:46.3	I have a possible above-the-charr question.
1:49.1	Am I betraying the Burbank community by buying bottles on the secondary market for secondary
1:56.8	prices?
1:57.5	Oh, this one opened up a can of worm so big. I knew I couldn't contain it just to
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Bourbon Pursuit, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Bourbon Pursuit and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.